The best I can say about the intelligence breach that is Wikileaks, and the President’s poor performance regarding this third massive classified document dump, is to quote Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, who correctly identified the type of letter that should have been sent to Julian Assange:

Dear Wikileaks,

If you publish any more material we will hunt you down no matter the cost, and you either will be killed while resisting arrest or you will spend the rest of your lives in solitary confinement in a Supermax prison, where the highlight of your day will be 1 hour spent in a cage instead of your cell. Don’t look up, that sound of propellers in the air is not a Predator drone.

Sincerely,
Harold Koh

Of course, that was not the letter that was sent. Instead, Mr. Koh sent a sternly-worded missive with threats of swift retribution pathetic plea to Assange to return the documents because publishing them would be bad.

If this weren’t so dangerous to our national security, it would be a joke, which is what America is swiftly becoming in the eyes of the world. We need to address this breach with authority and swift justice. Now.

“…I am quite sure that a certain housewife from Wasilla, AK, should she have been president right now, would find this SOB herself if need be. She could hunt him down, dress him in the field, put his antlers on the wall of the Oval Office and we could all watch it on The Learning Channel, Sunday night at 9:00. No facebook post would have been necessary.”

During this most busy travel season, delays are unavoidable. And with many people threatening to boycott the new TSA scanning/ pat-down process, delays are likely to be even longer.

As a public service to our readers, I would like to offer a few suggestions that can minimize your delays and make your travel a bit safer and less burdensome.

Of course, the Obama administration gives exemptions to themselves regarding these new security requirements (ironic, don’t you think?). Michelle Malkin has a great piece on the epitome of chutzpah regarding this.

Toward that end, and in the interest of avoiding what could be a 3-5 year delay on your travel (with accomodations provided by the “graybar hotel”), I offer the following things probably best left unsaid if you are selected for (or request) a pat-down inspection:

10.) Who me? Oh, I’m not actually going anywhere. But it’s been months since I’ve been on a date and…

9.) I’m ready, and my seatback and tray tables are in their full upright position, if you get my drift.

8.) What do you say we get a couple of Long Island Iced Teas and then get down to business here?

7.) Try to avoid my stimulus package, will you?

6.) I think I’m gonna need a paper towel when you’re done.

5.) Oh yes… yesss… YES!!!!!!! (Sigh…) Got a cigarette?

4.) I just want to know one thing: Will you still respect me when you’re done?

In a stunning announcement this morning, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that President Barack Obama has signed an Executive Order requiring that the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) merge operations with Universal Healthcare and Facebook, the Internet-Based Social Network.

In explaining this executive order to a stunned press, Gibbs explained, “The President recognizes the importance each of the three diverse organizations plays in today’s society and has decided that it is in the best interest of all citizens of the United States to benefit from the best each group has to offer by merging them into one new agency.

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

It’s official. I’m now permitted by the great state of Massachusetts to purchase and carry firearms.

It was not that arduous a journey, actually; I expected much worse. About a month before Gerry’s post about being shot at, I had completed the certification course required by Massachusetts in order to be allowed to apply for permission to buy a gun.

The course itself was hugely educational (as was, I’m sure, at least part of the point). It cost me $100 for a day of classroom course work and a day at the shooting range to qualify. The instructor, Mike, was an ex-military guy who was willing to spend as long as it took to make sure my classmate and I understood absolutely everything there was to know about guns and their history, from the invention of gunpowder to the present. Read the rest of this entry »

You won’t find any fawning Pro Sports fans here at Grand Rants, so if that’s what floats your boat, you might as well enter the URL for ESPN and be done with it.

Source: Bing.com

For a long time, it has been the opinion of all three writers here at Grand Rants that Pro Sports, like the entertainment world in general, is emblematic of all that is wrong with American Society: Greed, avarice, and the absolute willingness to rush headlong towards the lowest common denominator in society and cling to it as if it were an enviable aspiration. We Americans have come to embrace hype over substance and are willing to look the other way at any and all behavior, no matter how abhorrent, as long as the person is good-looking or famous. Nothing illustrates this so well as the media and public response to celebrities and professional athletes.

Ask yourself: Would Charlie Sheen be the subject of such adulation (from both sexes for, sadly, many of the same reasons) if he weren’t a star of TV/Movies?

Would Michael Vick have been welcomed back to his old job after serving time for his involvement in illegal dog fighting if he was a computer operator instead of an NFL quarterback? What message does it send, not just to the other NFL players, but to children who look up to professional athletes as their inspiration? This is a tragic case of opportunity lost (or as Barack Obama would call it, “A Teachable Moment”) and, as a society, we’re too damned stupid to even understand what, exactly, we’re missing.

Case in point: The sports world is buzzing over the performance of Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick logged on Monday Night Football’s matchup against the Washington Redskins. In that game Vick passed for 333 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 80 yards and another two touchdowns. On the first play of the game, Vick threw an 88-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson.

Even though we saw a wave of red sweep the nation last week, there have been many very troubling reports of absentee ballots either not being sent to our military, not having been sent in a timely manner, or sent and received received but not counted.

Feds to Sue New York Board Over Military Voting Violations, State Official Says (Link)

“We send our young men and women overseas to fight and to die for us, and we don’t care enough to make sure they get the right to exercise their franchise? That’s what they’re over there fighting for as much as anything else.”

By Monday night [October 11, 2010], it remained unclear just which of the counties still had yet to mail their ballots.

Absentee ballots for the upcoming election were not mailed out to almost 2,900 troops serving overseas by the deadline in about one third of Illinois counties…

Missed Deadline by New York Voting Board a ‘Huge Oversight,’ Soldier Says (Link)

The New York State Board of Elections’ failure to send all of its 320,000 absentee ballots to the state’s military servicemen and women and overseas voters after an extended deadline is alarming, an active duty Marine told FoxNews.com.

Senate Report: One Forth Of Military Votes Uncounted in 2008 (98,000 servicemembers screwed out of their vote) (Link)

A Senate report, [c]ited by the Associated Press today, seem to indicate that at least one quarter of all military ballots in the 2008 election went uncounted…

DoJ scandal reveals how thousands of military ballots may go uncounted (Link)

“…[L]egal complaints, news stories and studies all showed dozens of states failing to give soldiers enough time to vote in the 2008 election…”

To our active military members, thank you for your service to our country; your votes should count.

To our veterans, thank you for the services you have rendered to America.

And especially to our very own co-blogger here at Grand Rants, Gerry Ashley: thank you for your service.

Speaking as a citizen, a conservative, and a Tea Partier, I’d like to give you some advice as you prepare to take up the reins for the 112th Congressional session. These suggestions come from my desire to get our country back on track, to mitigate the disasters wrought by the 111th Congress, and to start Congress delving into the bigger picture about what will happen to America if we allow ourselves to continue on our current path.

They are very simple suggestions, and I hope you will take them in the spirit in which they are offered.

Get a normal-sized gavel. Hubris the size of Queen Nancy’s gavel is unbecoming in the People’s House.

Fly commercial. We’ll spring for business class. I know you’re third in line for the presidency, but given our fabulously successful national security policy of depending on good luck to protect us from attacks on airplanes, you should be fine.

Begin discussions of the 800 –poundgorillas in the room: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and state and federal pensions. Until those are addressed, all other fiscal discussions – including the current demand for a stand-alone vote on hiking the U.S. debt limit – are akin to re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. On April 14, 1912. At 10:30 or so in the evening. All Americans must understand that the U.S. government keeps three sets of books: immediate debt, emergency funds, and financial obligations for the future. It’s that last set of books which is already sinking us and which must be addressed immediately.

I sincerely hope you will take these suggestions to heart. Otherwise, you might not like what happens in 2012.